The figures are alarming: between 2017 and 2025, the number of suicides recorded in Argentina rose from 3,304 to 5,209 – an increase of 57.7 percent in eight years.
Over the same period, the rate rose from 8.2 to 11.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, an increase of 43.9 percent. The figure is the highest in the series analysed by the Observatorio de Política Criminal (OPC) NGO using data from the National Criminal Information System (SNIC), the body responsible for collecting and publishing nationwide crime statistics from provincial and federal security forces.
The comparisons help put the issue into perspective. While the rate of intentional homicides has fallen since 2017, the suicide rate has moved in the opposite direction and is now more than three times higher: 11.8 compared with 3.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The analysis indicates that suicide has become the leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. Health data analysed by the Chequeado fact-checking website show that since 2022, suicide ranked first among people aged 15 to 24, and that in 2024, it also topped the list of causes of death among those aged 25 to 34, overtaking road accidents.
Reasons for increase
According to psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Alberto Marani, “looking only for individual explanations is insufficient.” Drawing on a sociological analysis by Émile Durkheim, he argues that when a phenomenon reaches such a scale, “we also have to ask ourselves what is happening in society.”
“If the individual reasons coincide, it is because something is happening at a social level,” Marani told Perfil.
Marani, who is currently president of Argentina’s College of Psychoanalysts, outlines several possible reasons and points in particular to growing “disorientation and a loss of horizons among young people.” He describes a gap between the expectations generated by society and the real opportunities available to fulfil them.
“Young people feel responsible for their own failure or do not have a more or less reasonable set of expectations for the future,” he said. But he also points to other factors that are increasingly prevalent and can heighten vulnerability, including “the spread of online betting.”
The data supports some of these concerns. A report prepared by professionals at Austral University found that nine percent of adolescents aged 13 to 17 said they had felt depressed and 13 percent distressed during 2024.
In addition, eight out of 10 adolescents had accessed, or knew someone who had accessed, online betting websites or apps during the previous year. Forty percent had never discussed the issue at home.
No single cause
None of this means that the reasons for suicide can be reduced to the economy, gambling, a psychiatric condition or any other single explanation. Suicide is, specialists stress, “a multifactorial phenomenon in which individual, family, community and social factors interact.”
Health records from 2024 also show a significant gender gap: 2,892 of the deaths were men and 720 were women. In other words, four out of every five people who died by suicide were men.
What can be done to reverse the trend? Marani proposes a new focus on rebuilding social ties.
“Everything related to community engagement” can act as a protective factor, he argues. More people attending clubs, schools, peer groups and other institutions. These provide relationships, shared projects and people who can recognise when something is wrong.
“When there are community ties, you are in contact with a group of peers who are paying attention, and young people talk to each other. That alone improves the situation,” he said.
The OPC report reaches a similar conclusion. It calls for a shift from reacting to crises to preventing them, training teachers, healthcare teams and community leaders, ensuring rapid access to guidance and maintaining ongoing support.
Because behind a statistic that has now surpassed 5,000 cases a year lies a much more uncomfortable warning: suicide may occur behind closed doors, but preventing it requires a response that must necessarily be built outside them, and collectively.
Regional phenomenon
The phenomenon is not evenly distributed across the country. The province of Entre Ríos recorded a rate of 20.8 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025, followed by San Luis (18.9), Salta (17.4) and Santa Cruz (16).
In absolute numbers, however, Buenos Aires Province accounted for 1,977 cases – 38 percent of the national total. Together with Santa Fe, Córdoba and Entre Ríos, it accounted for almost six out of every 10 suicides recorded that year.
Risk factors
The economy does not, on its own, explain a suicide, but there is scientific evidence that economic deterioration, unemployment, financial difficulties and uncertainty can increase the risk, particularly among certain vulnerable groups.
A review published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Public Health states that “recessions can raise suicide rates, although the effect depends on factors such as the social policies implemented: measures to protect employment, incomes and housing can mitigate that impact.”
International evidence reinforces the association. An analysis of 175 countries found that every one-percentage-point increase in unemployment was associated with an increase of close to one percent in male suicides and of two to three percent among adults aged 30 to 59. It also found that higher GDP per capita was associated with lower rates. Other studies have found that economic uncertainty is also associated with an increased risk.
There are also indirect mechanisms. Financial difficulties can lead to debt, a loss of expectations and family conflict. Gambling can further aggravate that vulnerability: a Swedish study of 2,099 people diagnosed with gambling disorder found that suicide mortality was 15 times higher than in the general population.
In Argentina, a report by Austral University notes that during adolescence, socioeconomic factors form part of the broader set of conditions that can negatively affect mental health.
• Feeling low? Support, assistance and guidance is available in Argentina
– Laura Bonaparte National Hospital; Specialising in mental health and addictions; Telephone: 0800-999-0091
– Suicide Prevention Centre; From anywhere in Argentina dial (011) 5275-1135
– Free phone helpline for those in Buenos Aires City and Greater Buenos Aires: 135
– Mental Health Responds (City) Telephone: 0800-333-1665
– Subsecretariat for Mental Health – Buenos Aires Province; Problematic substance use and violence: 0800-222-5462
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